Multimedia Gallery - NCAR's scientists are tracing the complex chain of events linking emissions and airborne pollutants.

April 30, 2010

NCAR's scientists are tracing the complex chain of events linking emissions and airborne pollutants.

Primary sources of industrial pollution include emissions from power plants, smelters and refineries, which pour oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, and other gasses, into the atmosphere. There, the oxides and gasses react with moist air to become sulfuric and nitric acids, resulting in the formation of acid rain. In addition, in the presence of sunlight, nitrogen dioxide reacts with hydrocarbons (mostly gasoline vapors that escape burning in automobile engines) and other gases to form ozone, the primary ingredient of the photochemical fog that covers many large cities. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research are tracing the complex chain of events linking emissions and airborne pollutants.

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